Tuesday, February 12, 2013

And talking of curtains...




Keita has just left for Segou, but last night we watched ‘The Sound of Music’.  Keita is normally very macho in his film tastes and wants nothing but massacres, Kung Fu and car chases- i.e. all the things that make me fall asleep. But he was spellbound by The Sound of Music! I think it must be the Toubab children- he goes all soppy over white children who he thinks ‘charmant mais tres indiscipline’

8 Comments:

Blogger David said...

Now that is quite a picture. But of course grown macho men DO sob when Captain von Trapp returns from a break to find his children unruly and melts when they all sing 'the hills are alive'. Evidently Keita sides with him on the discipline front.

9:39 AM  
Blogger Elisabeth F said...

Great - this reminds me of a meeting with an American student in Ukraine in the 90ies, when she started to sing to me some melodies from "The sound of music", and I did not know them. Apart from Mozart, it was all she knew about Austria... so different the perspectives can be!

9:49 AM  
Blogger toubab said...

David, my most frequent commentor, has put a comment in above, but I also want to publish what he said in a separate email just by the by:

'so tickled by the thought of Keita watching Julie with you in deepest Mali. SoM is the Magic Flute of film: it charms all ages, creeds, etc etc.'

Maybe you two have a future of watching classic Hollywood movies together??'

I agree it is 'The Magic Flute of film: so aptly put! But I sniffed at it in my youth since I was a renegade Rock Chick... did not discover it until about a decade ago and is a devoted fan now of course. Indeed, you are quite right! It is particularly the von Trapp discipline in the early part that tickles Keita...

And you didn't know the melodies, Elizabeth? You must have known Edelweiss? Or is that a Roger and Hammerstein invention- surely not?
Do Austrians like SoM?

7:30 PM  
Blogger toubab said...

Oh, and yes, David there ARE some other old Hollywood gems that Keita loves, although they mostly make him go to sleep. But not 'Roman Holiday'! He remained wide awake and totally mesmerized by the beauty and charm of Audrey Hepburn. As far as Hitchcock goes it is North by Northwest- it is one of the livelier ones!

7:36 PM  
Blogger Elisabeth F said...

I really did not know the melodies. As strange as it might be, but Sound of Music is not popular in Austria! Not only among my friends (wikipedia says the same). There are regular performances in Salzburg but mainly for tourists. Don't ask me why, as operettas and other american musicals are very favoured. Could be that the Austrians still prefer to avoid the subject of SoM.

8:45 AM  
Blogger David said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

11:31 AM  
Blogger David said...

I don't suppose Keita's around for Valentine's Day, but Breakfast at Tiffany's would be the film of choice if he is. Does Audrey not dazzle in that?

Elisabeth puts her finger on the Austrian situation re Sound of Music (or Meine Lieder, meiner Traume as it used to be called there). Salzburgers used to hate the messing around with the locales but it was staged there successfully quite recently.

I saw it in Vienna, where the swastikas and the Nazis at every doorway alarmed the audience. They were pacified by singing along with Edelweiss. A Viennese listings magazine noted, 'Edelweiss is not the national anthem. But everyone who has been to The Sound of Music at the Volksoper seems to believe it is'.

11:35 AM  
Blogger Elisabeth F said...

Incredible - today a comment on Sound of musics and US Foreign policies! http://derstandard.at/1361240948171/Edelweiss-in-Washington

2:58 PM  

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